The Running Alternative to Driving...

Coming back from an overseas first marathon at Singapore must've set my kiasu factor on... it was quite worth it as my tank was almost dry...

It just went to queue for 20minutes for petrol - the price hike is on at midnight tonight, when RM 2.70 per litre sets (currently at RM 1.98 per litre).

Now, would anyone consider running or biking to work? Would anyone consider to change jobs to save petrol cost of travel?

Post-post marathon post-script : For strange reasons, my body recovery for the marathon is so much better than even a 10km race - within a couple of hours, it was just some minor thigh muscles ache, I was even on heels and away to work the next day without much hesitation. It is either I am a night creature or I'm a real sucker for extremes, I hope I can remember what else I must have done differently...

Sundown Marathon postscript

Some pictures taken by my non-running buddy who was in Singapore with me and saw me off at the starting line... (notice all the pictures are DARK). Obviously I miss our friendly malaysian race photographers, and the pacesetters photo on cert thing...

Pic 1- Odyssey premium service bus - going was a long journey due to friday traffic, but coming back was ok.

Pic 2 - Collected the race pack (ok, the pack had nothing much except one t-shirt, a customised number tag, and a bottle of mineral water and hundred plus). Carbo loading at Mandarin having my favorite chicken rice at Chatterbox (using carbo loading as an excuse, heheh)


Pic 3 - My sundown customised tag - they gave you a means of name you want printed on the tag and a new chip system - it was just a RFID string with a transmitter wired to the back of the tag.

Pic 4 - Sundown comes, midnight arises, getting ready for the race

Pic 5 - Warming up for the race - why does nobody warm up? I was a bit surprised that there were tons of participants (4000 I was told!) and yet, everyone was SITTING around. I had a bad feeling this was one of the marathon techniques I was not aware off... (or is it a singapore thing?)

Pic 6 - See, sitting around even for those at the first of the line. They must understand the pain and conserving energy...

Pic 7 - Go-go-go

My first marathon was an away trip - to Singapore, which revealed a whole new world of running to me and the 42km finisher tag - priceless..!

The race started in humid 12midnight the ungodly hour when everyone is getting ready to sleep. I was fortunate to have booked the hotel next to the race starting point at the last minute over the internet. It was a simple 5 mins walking distance away.

I had no strategy, but I carbo loaded dinner, breakfast, lunch and dinner before the race, drank lots of water to hydrate my body, slept the afternoon to rest, and brought along 4 packs of powerbar gels.

At the starting line, my first surprise was that, there were A LOT of people! Wow, Singapore is a really fit city (I will find out more later!). There was no way I could look for my colleagues (4 of them were running) or others I knew who were running this race. I did find KJ at the starting line and we started together, at the 5hr marker.

The starting was really cool, but eventually we were chaperoned off to a side of the road walkway even at the start, this became a congestion traffic point (CONGESTION at a MARATHON?). It also made me dizzy when I see so many runners stomping all around me...

0-10km - This was all the way around some flat pancake road, along changi, all the way somewhere to the civil airbase. The airport road was really really long (nothing like RMAF) - planes booming along the runway (and the passengers probably looking out and seeing these ants at midnight+... (we were wearing the shiny glowing concert band thing!)

11-20km - The east coast park was a bit more windy, and a nicer place to run. Although at some point there were people having picnics and all on the side, it was a strange distraction. At 20km there was a turnback, so along here I saw the other two of my colleagues - KH and SA, on the other side. I was still running ok.

21-30km - The unknown territory begins at this point as I had not run beyond 21km in my poor preparation. I was still going quite well, and at 21km, I was around my usual 21km run pace, but body still feeling good and legs feeling ok, at this point I knew I could make it to the finish. It was all a countdown from here. This part was the most weird route of the race, it went through a few overhead bridges, many park connectors (ie running next to people's house in lanes), and some weird smaller pathways. I lost a bit of momentum here, as there were many people walking, some of them even block the path.

31-42km - The countdown, and also halfway, last hour, it started to rain. It was a real motivation for me to run faster. At this point, I was surprised my feet were just numb, but no cramps, aches or anything and really jogging was much more comfortable than walking. The finishing last 2km, I almost walked it, except for last 1km, when you know you will finish, you kind of slack off... but... what a feeling - the finish arch was ... euphoric, I ran like 100m speed the last 50m!

Some comments :

1) Singapore vs. Malaysia - a couple of things - Malaysians will never sign up with such fervor for a marathon. But, as I expected, there were still many Singaporeans who were not really experienced athletes (ie they were walking much of the race beyond 10km or same pace as me). I was wondering where singaporeans run and train since there was not much space. I realised during the run there were these connectors pathways between apartments... The other thing I wondered was about warming up and this sitting down thing - most sat around the starting line - is this a new technique?

2) Route - What the heck are bridges doing in a run? I think I did about 4 bridges, I cannot remember. One even had stairs... and the final little bridge one lane to the finishing area ... But kudos to some lone person cheering you in the middle of the night in weird nooks and corners, at least won't get lost, and also they had toilets along the way.

3) Carbo loading, hydration, gels, socks - I cannot underestimate the value of these three factors. Beyond 21km, I felt good enough to go for another 21km, due to these three factors, and the socks and shoes are important to avoid blister and have a good run

4) Chaffing, Pain and Post Race - The only comment I had post race was - I now know what is the reason why you need vaseline to avoid chaffing (during shower after run). The other was that extended pain can be avoided with good anti-inflammation cream, warm up and I am an advocate of powerbar recovery drink.

I am not sure when I will run a marathon again, but you can be sure I will be better prepared... ! For the record, I ran for more hours than I usually sleep - this is an achievement! Thanks to all for the motivation.

Sundown Marathon 42km Finisher

I did it! My first marathon run completed at Sundown Marathon in Singapore - this morning! I did not sleep the whole night. The feeling is, ecstatic. Every km beyond 21km was a new zone to me, I freely admit to not advocate my not enough training approach. But, with a bit of careful treatment, carbo loading, gel packing, pacing, and the night race, I finished my first marathon despite not a great timing, but I fully enjoyed this race.

It is a question of sufficient preparation and eventually, mind over matter, and now I fully understand why the experienced runners are addicted - "pain is temporary, quitting is forever" - I saw this on one of the runner's shirt.

Let me savor this for a moment ... will write a proper race summary and some photos later.

RMAF 10km - 25 May 2008 - better late than never

Many thanks to mr tey for the photo, very gemuk but funny that i am smiling all the way to the end from this funny rmaf run...

I had signed up for this race a couple of weeks back, in the 10km category, in anticipation that I may wish to race for Sundown next week and needed a bit of rest (more on that later...).

There is always a first for any race. I had done a DNS before (Did not start), never wish to do a DNF (Did not finish), but this was a LTS (Late to start!!!) - my first start late race!

Looking back, I can actually see how funny it is, but I was really close to giving up and driving back. I had surfed around the net looking for directions to parking for this run since two days ago, and failing to do so, I set off at around 6am, and reached around the Sungei Besi airbase area in around 10-15 mins. My first mistake was not able to get onto the partially blocked slip road, and ended up on the SMART highway lane. So, I headed to KL and turned back. Second attempt following some small signboards, ended up in a blocked slip road, the cop asking me to go go ahead. And I ended up in Cheras direction, turning back, another block, and the cop asking me pusing balik. By then it was almost 645. After pusing balik, found the road to the airbase blocked off, but this time, there were about 5 cars also trying to inquire. Finally seeing how there was less than 5 mins to starting, I moved ahead and parked like about 750 m from the turn off. And ditched all the gadgets and ran to the turn off, only to find a man directing further ahead the entrance to the airbase. And ran to the entrance, almost 7am flag off time, only to have the man in the entrance telling me to run forward for a BUS!!! What the ****?? By then, I was almost running pace, had run almost 1km+, and got onto the bus, together with a handful of similar fated persons about 8 persons, and the bus waited for a minute or two for stragglers. And as the bus moved to the other end of the airbase, the bus driver pointed to the airbase and said, hey, the category C,D,E,F is flagged off, there they are running on the airway, maybe you should get down and just join!!!! It was not funny.... :-)

We took the bus all the way to the starting point being pure sports-people. And there we were, after alighting from the bus, squeezed past the barricade of the next flag off category, to jeers and cheers of bunch of army men, and me and 3 other guys quickly sped off, where the last of the category E/F people who were walking were almost 3/4 off the airbase runway. So we were about slightly under 10 mins late all in....

The good news was that, the late start made me so concious that I did not want to be last. Paced with veteran C3167 Syed Ahmad (who was in the late bus!!!) who told me he ran in last week's race, and he was furiously also trying to catch up after parking far away. We looked really weird trying to potong these young kids starting to catch up almost at the end of the runway (about 1km+) - these kids were walking, and me and this veteran malay man was furiously running the runway to catch up. It was almost weird also because C3167 ended pacing throughout the race with me, finished almost the same time, and the first 3-4km, I almost felt strange, he was running faster than kids who were probably less than 1/3 his age, and I was in my blue Singapore Marathon souvenir vest looking really out of place among the kids dressed in the event t-shirt and most of them were Malay. So I look like some SPG running with an older man... ahem.

To be honest, this was one of my best 10km for the year - I ended up clocking about 1hr 6m in a pretty comfortable run - but the master clock was flashing 1hr 45 for the half marathon runners when I finished - this means we were about 9 mins late (the half marathon started 30 mins ahead). And pour salt into wound, there were few runners in 10km category, and I missed medal position number 50 by 2 persons in front of me!!

Note - Finally found a hill more nasty than double hill - the one at the back of Kuen Cheng school, where the Chinese cemetary's are. Yes, we ran past almost 2km of chinese cemetary. At one point, I joked to one of the girls that it gives you more motivation to run faster since both side of the road was lined with cemetaries. She said, well, if you dont disturb them... but well I said, huge stampede of runners waking the dead up early in the morning... heheh.

Funny episode, and good run, glad I went and still persevered despite being late. Now, come to think of it, the runway looked pretty short....

And I had to hike another 1.5km back to the car... (making this a 13km race? haha!)

Antara Anyer dan Jakarta

Song name - "Antara Anyer dan Jakarta" - Sheila Majid

I received a SMS from Hendra today that he was meeting with one of my ex-client team members, GPU. Hendra used to work for me in a bank merger project in Jakarta - I was there in 1999. It brings back a lot of memories. Hendra would not have messaged me if he did not have the same flashes of deja vu - meeting with people from the past... this was one of the good project experiences I had in my career in consulting. After all, there were very few of us who has these fond memories still around the same company.

How time has passed ... It was a time when I was still young, impressionable, motivated. I headed out to Jakarta during the period when Megawati was elected president. The previous election shed blood and many did not want to go to work at Jakarta at that time. I was just promoted at that time and was eager to "take on new roles". I was promised to lead a technical team, and my "friends" - colleagues I was close to was going for the project. It was led by a good charismatic leader. The team had already been there for a while to build the merger plan. It was time to implement the plan.

This was my most memorable project. When I went there, I was given a pager. The pager was a security device which the firm subscribed to using a security consultant. The pager provided key information to tell you when to run or when to stay put, it also had different levels of security alert.

But I found the country very friendly and safe. I actually really liked the people, the client and found a lot of comfort in the environment. I "co-led" a fun team, a small 6 person team which managed the technology integration aspects - in my final role - I was a one person leading about 20 men in rollout teams. Thinking back, this must have indeed been very challenging for a chinese female like me then. My co-team manager was an easy going local - he is still around the firm. My client manager was a steady individual, who drew a lot of strength from my input. We got along very well and I was a good trusted advisor. I presented in Indonesian to the CIO twice. We rolled out 20 branches, and in one incident, we were locked in a branch overnight due to security issues outside. I was driven around by a driver who was a standard norm in indonesia. My driver smuggled durians into my apartment for me when I asked for the "best durian" in Jakarta. I slept in a room with 15 other females during a "client away" trip. During our weekends we would go to Puncak (the hillsides) for some jagung bakar. I created a reusable warehouse for recycling equipment. I worked in that warehouse which was small size of two conference rooms, underground, with about 20 smoking men all the time. I had the worst rollout incidents in this project - all things went wrong at one time that it was 2 nights of sleepless nights before we were able to go off. I regret that I left in a hurry, because after that I left for another offshore project in Taiwan.

The Sheila Majid song Antara Anyer dan Jakarta still hangs in my memory of those days. Not because of any love story (thats what the song is about!), but the experience and the people whom I met, and that I never went back there for the last 9 years - I said I will be back but I never did... it brings back a lot of memories.

And the best thing was, I did go to Anyer. One day, a few of us asked our driver to drive from Jakarta to Anyer and to the corner of Java island, took a ferry to Sumatra and back. It was just another town at that time, but when I heard the song, I knew the meaning will always ring in my head as long as I remember the good old days then, the camaraderie of friends and long lost acquaintances. I cannot remember all my team members, but there are a few HP, ESS, GPU, AW - these are my clients who were mad enough to be with me on that journey.

I hope I can say again, I will be back. I miss those good old days, and respected all of the people I was with then.

New Balance Pacesetters 15km 18 May 2008

Thanks Tey for the photo. What was I looking for, I looked quite tired! I hope I did my big smile for the camera cert... heheh

This was my second NB 15km race. The first one I did in 2006, whilst last year, I skipped it due to illness.

I've never felt so good about a race for almost a long long time. I had really not run for about 2 weeks+, not even in training, drowned in work and also this nasty lingering cough. I skipped the 30km night race last week, and decided to pull out of Sundown on the same day last week due to lack of practice.

Today's race went quite well, even though I was almost 6 mins worse than my time in 2006. I could not tell if it was just the standard decline in my performance in running (as observed in all the races!), or it was just the change in route. This year the route was indeed a bit more challenging due to the teasing ending but not yet when there was almost about 2 km more towards the end near Padang Merbuk, and the last 1 km, we had to do the KTM loop which is a nasty hill which punctured everyone.

This year's race also saw a unique medal - in shape of a NB shoe!

I surprised myself with a consistent pace, and I throughly enjoyed my new found toy, my ipod shuffle with a mix of silly chinese songs (Twins!) and real rock stuff from Eagles, INXS. My collection of MP3s in iTunes were a mixture of CDs I had ripped from a few occasions, with equal mix of chinese and english titles.

All in, I had a good continuous running pace, with only and yet only the 2nd hill of the double hill and also the final KTM bit which taxed me and forced me to a walk. My knees felt fine and I had no blisters and I did not push myself to the limit at the end to manage my own exertion.

This run is my post-retirement run. I could make it a comeback run, but I am still not sure. Now I am indeed tempted to go and try the Sundown just for the heck of it, but as I told SCH this morning, the problem I had was that I did not know how to quit and stop. Having never encountered injury and also immense body stretch of a marathon, I would have no idea when is the breaking point.

This is coming from one who has not hit the wall before. So how would I know unless I try.... still... I cannot imagine being carried off to a hospital in singapore all because I wanted not to waste my SGD 50 for the race fees...

Think about it for one more day.

Weekend Deja Vu with Australia @ Hunteroos Race

I have not blogged for a while. Almost 2 weeks plus ... Perhaps to refresh my POV and blog status, I thought I'd restart with the lighter side of things. Last weekend we participated in the Australian Hunteroos Race. Almost very excited to be going for another "treasure hunt" after the last disappointment with the Trailblazer's Race, we were all gung-ho and arrived at 3 Kia Peng all eager.

Firstly, this was not a treasure hunt but more an Amazing Race. Secondly, it was the most well sponsored "race" we had ever encountered. They served breakfast, provided T-shirt and caps, started the race at 9am (which is unusually late), and had wine, beer, and huge lunch served, even with Angel Hair pasta.

I played the didgeridoo (what?) for the first time (see Pic1-that is not me). Yeah, that australian aborigine music pipe. Me, running with a nasty cough was huffing and puffing all my saliva into the **** pipe and some young punk telling me, you have to loooose your lips and "blow softly" do not need to take hard puff. Just try just try... after like 20 times on the "didge", I was almost annoyed that he was not even looking at me when I made some almost music sound. Finally out of pity of this bronchitis sounding participant (me), he finally said, one last attempt and I will see, and in my final puff, he gave the the points. I cannot believe I would pay to do this!

We all got a chance to do the Flying Fox for the first time in the KL Tower (see pic 2). I heard of a reverse bungy, but never knew they equiped the tower with a flying fox from AJ Hackett the bungy experts. Well, the Flying Fox cost almost RM 30, and I would have not paid to do it if on my own, as it was a short distance, but as part of the race... greaaat! What was really disappointing was that I leap off the stand, had a real good relaxing swing down, posed for the camera, and MISSED the "trump card" extra point kangaroo shirt man standing next to the camera-man!

Lastly, as another part of the race, we had to eat a slice of Emu and a slice of Kangaroo, not knowing what was each and identify one or the other. Mr JS ate the entire Emu happily without sharing and we were in such a disappointed state that we had a pretty good time kidding ourselves and convinced the organiser to give us another piece to try. Well, it is indeed the first time I probably tasted Emu but maybe I had eaten kangaroo meat before. It wasn't too good to share these "endangered" national animals of australia as toasted meat for the participants... especially with a team who calls themselves Skippy (us) (the Australian bush kangaroo, according to Ms JS).

That was the weekend for me, got home flustered from over-excitement in the earlier part of the race, some disappointment mid of the race, and a full stomach end of the race.

But, kudos to sponsors. Just not too happy with organisers for some "flaws"...

Life is a one take movie

Just feel a bit low today. One Kilkenney beer and it still did not solve the problem. And truthfully, I have only myself to blame. Anyway, its one of those days, I am bogged down by too many worries at work, I have been on panadols every other day for the last 3 weeks+, wish to not have any more instant noodles, wish for more than 3 hrs of sleep, not feeling worn down and just plain not be bothered by the fact that I am not able to respond to things I need to do.

Life is a one take movie. One of my old friend's mother passed away on Sunday. I did not manage to attend the wake. Since when did I have friends with parents who pass away? The first thing that hit me was that I am really getting old. The second thing which hit me is that I really hope she had a peaceful and fulfilled life, which I am sure she did. And when it comes to my time, what do I wish to see on my tombstone or recited at my wake? I feel very under-achieved in life and having lost so much time on useless worries.

The processor is really tired.

Social Business

Book introduction excerpt here
I bought this book over the weekend. I read it last night, the first two chapters - the prologue and the introduction, albeit having one of those incredibly exhausted days.

Muhammad Yunus is indeed a genius - a worthy receipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (together with Grameen Bank) in 2006. When the Nobel Peace prize winner was announced, I was a bit surprised to hear of this unknown man - such is the world of information and capitalism, that those worthy causes which do not generate profit and publicity does not gain much worldly attentions.

Here is a man who developed and built Grameen Bank, igniting the microcredit revolution, and at the same time, working on loans to poor women to conduct business and creating the social capability for them to lift themselves from the poor via small businesses. Loans were all less than USD 100 and yet it was capable to enable these women to be entrepreneurs and start new businesses for them to survive.

This book talks about a new idea which I found refreshing - social business. The idea of a social business is about a no profit, no dividend based business which seeks to address social issues ie. poverty, malnutrition (the example was contribution and establishment of Grameen Danone which provided yogurt to the poor in Bangladesh using a no profit scheme and at same time distribution channel of the Grameen women, enabling the poor to be part of the scheme).

The introduction itself was captivating, it addressed why World Bank, Governments, NGOs and Corporations with CSR intent was not able to address the social dilemmas but it required a new form of business called social business where these issues could be discussed.

A worthy read.

Beijing Olympics Torch Relay Fun Run - April 20

Photo credits to Hon You, from pacesetters/KC's blog site.
Pic 1 : Sieh Kok Chi, Olympic Council, with supposedly an "original torch". Everyone was quite hyped to be standing so near the "torch". Apparently Sieh ran as well...


Pic 2 : Starting line for the run...
Pic 3 : Me, with some "pia" spirit at the end, trying to speed up to potong someone...
Pic 4 : My buddy Wai Fun, also most loyal to the Olympic spirit, greeted by the samsung supporters on blades.., she is not a regular runner, but bravo to Orange Run last week and Olympic Torch Fun Run this week - great achievement...
Pic 5 : The finishing line, a bit informal but quite rah-rah as well.


Location - Dataran Merdeka, distance, around 5.82km (as seen from pacemaker blog)

This was the fun run I was not about to miss. Although it was hardly advertised and boasted a distance of only 5km - this was a good and relaxing run and also a great spiritual run for me as I uphold the Olympics as the greatest sporting arena for the modern world.

Probably two lines of strict opinionated thoughts - the Olympic Torch Relay has been to many countries and disrupted many times by pro-Tibet or human rights activists on China's stand and treatment on the Tibet issue. I am, and I think very much all whom I know still stand strong on that the Olympics is a great sport - do not mix politics with the Olympics. The effort of the athlete and also the spend on staging the greatest event for 2008, and for Asia to hold this center-stage in Beijing, this itself is a testament of the meaning of sport. I support the Olympics meaning and uphold its principles, and this was what the fun run was for. I hope the real Torch Run tomorrow will not be disrupted, and from what was advertised, we are targeting 80 key Malaysians who has contributed to sports and sponsorships to take the 16.8km Torch Relay, starting at Dataran Merdeka and ending in KLCC.

Despite a small crowd, it was very heartening to see people of all ages, young and old, take on this race, have the spirit to wave the sponsor's flags at the finishing line and also having a great simple sunday run.

Footnote - As this was just a 5km run, and also incredibly unfit, I had a first hand experience in dashing to the finishing line. I was racing this girl, for the last 50m, and we "sayur" one other lady - in the end I lost to her, I think I was running like it was 100m race - it really brought a smile to me as it was just plain fun to put on the speed and run like no tomorrow, even if it is just to the finishing line. I wish I had run a bit harder along the way, I probably missed a medal (top 20 only) by one or two minutes, finishing around 39:00 min at very easy pace.

Two Days and Two Monuments @ Sydney on April Fool's Day

The Sydney Harbour Bridge, site of fireworks every new years day...
Ah, I told you I was there for two days, this is the evidence. It was a great sunny day.

Magic turns people on....

I guess you give everyone a bit of time and put them into dinner and dance fancy dress theme, they are very creative. Magic was the theme of the simple but magical dinner and dance last Friday. Photo credits from the photographers, Kok Leong, and mostly Chin Geh (whom I stole most of this post since I could copy it).

The wardrobe was a clear winner of the best dress event. The guy who can think of the weird and unique spend as little as possible, understand what is needed to socialise his idea of best dress is definitely a smart young man.

Men who put on eyeliner or body paint deserve mention as superhuman effort to try to look good and can spend some time on it. In today's society, this is also an exception...

There was evil and tail pulling amongst even my most goodie two shoes team members. Women who smile and chooses to dress as witches are suspicious. So are good guys who can look extremely evil under camera.

There was a bit of flesh baring as well... again women held their ground with nice flat tummies and the sex appeal won the day for the best performance event with a bit of belly dancing - eh when was that magical?






Whatever turns the younger generation on.... it was a fun night!

Trailblazers Hunt 29 Mar 2008

This was the first treasure hunt for the year for our team. After announcing internally to my regular team that we should target to conquer the top 5 position this year, it was a slow start fro the treasure hunt season, thus finally in end March we got the chance to get onto this hunt. Of course the disadvantage was that the usual suspects of experts had already a few down their belt for the year, and were more fresh... and of course it was another CoC.

There were a few things at stake here, we agreed we would go for Kiwanis Hunt (which was quite expensive and some of us a bit tight on schedule), if we emerge top 15 and of course the standing promise that if we ever achieve our top 5 breakthrough I promised that after this "breakthrough", the next hunt after that I will drive my car for the hunt!

The bad news is that of course we messed up, and probably turned up more than the Kiwanis participation limit for the hunt, and did poorly in overall compared even to a team whom we know with two members who were our colleagues and were not regulars.

The good news (I'm ever optimist) is that I think we manage to break our thinking rhythm. We finally had some patience to figure out the sequence of what to be looking for and worked as a good team to find some of the answers. The only problem remains in that we had two weak areas - one was on treasures, and the other was not being careful to decipher and match the whole clue, causing us to drop a few route questions rather carelessly and figure out some of the difficult ones(!!).

So what do we need to do differently? I think we need to think about our approach clearly again, as definitely this was not good encouragement to be always hunting in the middle of the pack, and if we dont do something, nothing will improve.

One thing I noticed was how I was always told, treasure hunting is a sport. It is emphasised again and again by the experts. I do not disagree with this statement, but the beauty of this sport is that it is controlled by the brain. I know in my team, we have the capability to be the best because we have that capability within reach, whilst running a race really requires adequate conditioning of the body, conditioning of the mind was indeed more within reach than the body. But one thing I wanted to see more, in every sport, the most interesting thing is enjoyment, I do find the treasure hunt community to be a bit tight on themselves. To be honest, what is wrong about laughing about yourself or be more friendly after or before the race? Even during the race, nothing to stop you from giving the friendly competitor a bit of devilish smile. I find it odd that those who heckle the organiser are really the average joes, whilst the winners keep quiet and tense and hide their "interest".

Our time will come...

KLIM 2008 - The beginning of the end? Or the end of the beginning?

Picture credits - Vincent Leong

Blogging in reverse, I admit I had a good race. My race strategy was to take it easy as I had a terrible week of being too busy, and a lack of good practice for the last few weeks except for weekly runs (thanks to our running SIG!). The most I've ran before the race was the Circuit Run #2 within the last month and the GE 20km for the last 2-3 months. In between we had some fun weeks racing in double hills. With the nasty dry cough, I was not certain I would run about a week prior to the race, and also with the week following which I had to travel to Sydney immediately after the run. In the end I did the race because I had sacrificed my sydney trip going earlier because of the run. Again, my race strategy was simple because I knew this year, the time is longer for half marathon, 3.5hrs.

Standing at the starting line, I cannot believe that after so many runs (3 KLIM half marathons!), and four half marathons last year (KLIM, GE, Penang, PJ) I had not managed to get rid of this butterflies in my stomach feeling when I step to the starting pen (kandang!).

The loop this year has changed slightly, I was disturbed by the change because after the initial loop around KL and back to the starting line in the beginning, I noticed a good 16 minutes had gone past! When I did not manage to reach the drinks station after running for 45 minutes (it was supposed to be at 5km), I started to get weary and slowed down. This was probably my mental self also checkpointing myself that I could push myself as I needed to travel later in the day. When I slowed down, before Federal Highway, PL and JS passed me.

Surprisingly TY passed me only much later, closer towards the Sungei Besi - he is a very steady runner - he paces himself well for his large build. At the Sungei Besi turn, I was shocked to find that I had approximately touched almost 1:30 something, and this was indeed bad news but my great mind thought, well I ran the extra 16 mins at the beginning. This was when I started to really slow down after 11-12 km, and did half of the remaining race half walk and run. I shuffled past two of my companie's younger guys after about 12km near Pudu, it was such a thrill I was not last!!!

Most enjoyable difference this year was indeed the Adidas rain showers at the Sultan Ismail last stretch, who cares if I had wet shorts or wet vest, it was a cool shower!!! When I made the end I was just around 3hrs, it was a disappointment for a runner to get worse year after year, but I was quite pleased with myself, nevertheless this was also a point for me to reflect - I think I want to give up the sport for next year if I go on this way. How am I every going to go for the marathon distance? I think about it and wonder if I have to get back to the basics or quit the sport.

Postscript - Tonight, I took a box and put in my half marathon finisher medal this year. I had in the box, a collection of medals from 10-21km races throughout the last two years+ when I started running. It is a great achievement, for a person who is not an athlete inborn, but every race I see great motivational people and people who want to stretch themselves, and every year, I get more of my team to join the race. Racing is a lonely sport - as you run against yourself, but one which you feel scared in the beginning, want to retire in the middle, and a great accomplishment in the end. People ask me what I think during races, this race I ran without headphones and MP3, guess what, I was just thinking of whose butt am I following. Perhaps this lack of sensible thinking is why I really enjoy myself!

What a long week!

Phew, what a long week it had been.... and I have just gotten a small fragment of time to blog, but I do think the long week will not finally end until end of day tomorrow.

The week started the beginning of last week, when I had a roller coaster week, I was doing almost 5 different things every day / different critical things and projects related areas for the week. When I reached Thursday I was almost wiped out and I had even more on Friday. This is almost when I started to control my timing for the weekend.

Saturday - AM Trailblazer treasure hunt
Sunday - AM - Ran the half-marathon at the KL International Marathon, PM boarding a overnight flight to Sydney ex Singapore (with only 3 hrs sleep on the flight and some sore legs)
Monday - AM - reached Sydney hotel with 30 mins to spare before my training starts, PM visited a university friend whom I've not seen for many years
Tuesday - AM - day started at 8am, ended at 3pm. PM - went for a whirlwind tour of Sydney from Sydney Harbour Bridge/Opera House, boarding a ferry to Darling Harbour, visited the Sydney Aquarium, then had my Krispy Kreme doughnuts for dinner, and then a bunch of concalls
Wednesday - AM - day started with post office trip to send stuff to my brother in Melbourne, and then boarded a flight back to KL ex Singapore
Thursday - AM back to work, skipped both presentations I had, did lunch with client, and another bunch of concalls, a tender opening announcement, and finally to pick up costumes for D&D and camera equipment from brother at night.
Friday - D&D

And I am so completely drained... but I survived! I am not proud of this mad schedule, in fact if anything, I think it has finally cracked my need for speed.

When I was walking towards the pier in Sydney, on a bright Tuesday afternoon, in Sydney. I was really thinking, I need to quit this rat race. I had been coughing and suffering a lack of rest for the whole almost two weeks, and when I was walking towards the pier with a coffee in hand, with no hurry, I felt the world suddenly slowed, and I was walking down a road in sydney, going to see one of the most beautiful and famous sights in Australia. Why should I not be doing this more often? And for a good afternoon, I stopped coughing.

The soul is screaming for a rest!!!!

How Many?

Somehow, no one understood the purpose of having multiple blogs. So, no one has asked me, how many blogs do I have? I actually have 5 blogs!!! (Wow!) - two is stagnant, one is for my dad but he never wrote.

Extreme Leadership - My leadership series which I am beginning to enjoy writing a lot more

This blog - My personal blog which I've started way back in 2003

My photo blog - The photo blog which was intended to parallel one I saw in a friend's post, but ran out of gas on photos.. may be reactivated in future

Wireless Trends - A defunct (and one day I may activate it again) blog also started in 2003

Sow a Seed of Greatness - Seriously, this was my birthday present to my dad, to setup a blogsite for him, but he never did write anything. The phrase is indeed the tagline of his work - at that time he was creating motivational quotes for people.

In the course of the five years of on and off blogging, it has been a pleasure to surf and view others' writings - blogging is indeed a phenomenon of the modern internet world!

With much thanks to all who has given feedback here and there, and to Michele for asking to put my leadership series up for view within the corporation whereby I have politely declined. My thoughts are that if I write for others to read, I report, but if I write for pleasure and with good intent, I blog.

Pre-Treasure Hunt Photo Trivia

The brain has not been working well lately. I love it when I think that going for a treasure hunt will help it work faster... but well, one has got to try all sorts... Am definitely looking forward to jogging the brain cells a bit this Saturday.

I am a photography fanatic in a distance. What this means is that I have no patience to learn, but I do love good photos. Thus to bind together photography and treasure hunting, what else, here you go, photo-treasure guessing, well if it works I will do a series of ten, ok :

1. What is this? It is pictured next to my running watch for size purposes.



Hint : It has to do with the recent silence from a famous boy band from Taiwan who lost three members.

Answer when I feel like it, submit please

SMART Tunnel is not so smart after all

Caught this in the Star, after my short cut from TPM to KLCC was found BLOCKED off this afternoon. What? I thought the SMART Tunnel was for rain? I smell a big fiasco cooking up ...

SMART tunnel closed until further notice
PETALING JAYA: The SMART Tunnel has been closed since 6pm Saturday for flood-mitigation works because of heavy rains, and its management is unsure when it will be re-opened.
Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel Sdn Bhd experts will meet Monday to determine when the tunnel can be reopened, a spokesman told The Star.
The company is a joint venture between Gamuda Bhd and Malaysian Mining Corporation Bhd.

We are First Among Equals

Watch this space for more...

Blood Donation Restrictions

Can you read it? Spotted... at TPM

Anda dinasihatkan JANGAN MENDERMA DARAH jika anda PERNAH...

- Melakukan hubungan seks :

> seks sejenis (homoseks)

> kedua-dua jantina (biseksual)

> bertukar-tukar pasangan

- Menjadi pelacur & melanggani pelacur

- Menghidap penyakit kelamin

- Menagih dadah & berkongsi jarum

WOW!!!!! (get it translated if you do not understand malay- this is really blunt!)

Encounter with an ADUN

The housing area where my parents stay at recently has had a spate of petty thefts which is bordering on daring and also risky. The thieves uses a fishing style - they prey on open windows (even on upper floors of a double story house!), and also unlocked windows to pry open and use hooks to "fish" for valuable stuff. This has been ongoing nearly everyday or every other day for the last two weeks.

Last week there was a "steering committee" meeting for the representatives of the street. The steering comm was called to discuss actions to curb this. Surprisingly, the meeting was attended by the new ADUN from DAP (hey, everybody's ADUN now is opposition if you stay in the city!).

Guess what? One of the ADUN's suggestion to to rear a dog as an interim measure! Huh? What? (Even my dad was shaking his head when he related this to me!) - what kind of interim proposal is this!? I am beginning to wonder how "skilled" these newly voted ADUNs are ...

But, the message is still clear - we still need better security.

Class Act

Never been so proud of the guys.

No ocean too deep, no mountain too high, no distance too far. We can take on anything you throw at us.

This is my young team who has proven, they can take on the challenges.

Convergence and Divergence

At some point in time, some of the things converges and then one realises whether this is it. Whether this is a focal point, a beginning or a convergence before the end or the end of a beginning. Or whatever.

I have been feeling a throbbing headache for the last few days since Thursday. My body is starting to reject me! After a 10.8km run on Sunday, I felt my body broke down finally in protest - the week which I left behind on Thursday finally caught up with me and it told me I was not ok. I had a terrible Sunday, threw up my lunch, had a throbbing headache and the headache never stopped even up till now as I am writing.

I have tons of unfinished business, a few dozens of half done stuff and a lot on my mind.

My mind needs to take a vacation. It has gone beyond what my body can cope!

7 years @ TPM and still hungry...

As a consulting professional, I've always been mostly at clients site for work.

On and off, I have been at Technology Park Malaysia for about 7 years with some breaks in between (3 clients!).

This morning, this guy just really made me laugh - i was rushing off for a 2pm appointment without my lunch and he stopped me at the car park (do I look very friendly to young chaps - I thought everyone really thinks I look too snappily fierce recently?)

Young Malay Guy : Nak tanya, di mana ada tempat makan? Saya baru pindah office!
Me : Huh, err.... then I started staring at direction of APIIT - hesitated as it was quite far to point, then said - Disini tak ada tempat makan
Young Malay Guy : Huh, tak ada?
Me : Ya, tak ada, langsung tak ada - and started to point towards APIIT, muttered something like sana, turn right.
Young Malay Guy : (Very confused with the langsung tak ada and repeated) Saya baru pindah sini
Malay Man walking past : Makan? Di sana, kanan, ada kolej...
Me : (Nodding) Ya, APIIT... (Thinking, Ok, I can go now...)
Young Malay Guy : Jauh kah?
Malay Man walking past : Ya, 10 mins?
Young Malay Guy : Huh?
Me : (Started to LEAVE...!!!!)

Poor guy. Technology Park even after 7 years there on and off still has NO place to EAT on walking distance except APIIT (which serves paltry college kid food).

And why do strangers ask me questions like that? Just the same as the KLCC guy manning the scanner machine - sometimes he likes to practice his english on me "Good morning, how are you?" These guys do it only to specific people, and trust me, I know I do not have a "wish me a good morning face" - maybe I have a blank face and they want to see if I'm brain dead?

And I'd write more on 7 years @ TPM later...

Stress Kills

I was happily watching TV at home after work yesterday when I was informed by my mum that the notorious Klang municipal councillor Zakaria who built a mansion and had a satay house without a permit had passed away (apparently even this made it to the SMS alert from Star so many knew about it).

Me : Died?
Mum : Yes, die already (in chinese - "sei chor") !
Me : What? How? What do you mean die already?
Mum : Yes, just passed away after dinner
Me : Huh? You mean heart attack?
Mum : Dunno, must be....
Me : Wah, like "po ying" (chinese, meaning - paying for sins)
Mum : Ya, got big house also cannot enjoy... must go enjoy more la...

And at that moment, I turned on to Berjaya TV channel 502 on Astro (24 hour news), hoping to catch some of this gossip, when the TV turned to a special Bahasa talk show segment on "How to Handle Stress" - and I was watching it for 5 mins, and they mention hypertension causing heart attack, blah blah...

My heart felt a bit funny for a second. I recalled one occasion running the treadmill at a frantic pace just to get some of those overflow of info off my head... and I wonder, how come now I don't feel so stressed anymore? Or has hypertension set in within my low blood pressure?

Stress Kills...

And I am getting old too... systems stress level not good already...

(Post script - I was told that "po ying" means die a terrible death, but this guy really died away peacefully... so I wonder how many nasty SMS he received before his heart give up...)

With sincere apologies that I do not intend to make humor out of people's death, just the coincidence and realisation is that we should all live with less stress and also with every moment fulfilled always.....

Malaysia Decides - Tsunami of Change

The "rakyat" has spoken. I am shocked but really proud to be in a democratic country yesterday. The 12th election just saw a tsunami of shock defeats and a wave of change sweeping across the nation, with heavy casualties amongst top politicians, handing over the coalition its worst performance since our independence.

As predicted in the last blog, the winds of change, coupled with a long list of undeniable dissatisfaction points of the existing government had brought huge wins for the opposition, and to my surprise, the coalition lost the 2/3 majority although maintained a simple majority.

The tsunami effect had been totally unexpected even by the politicians themselves. The people carried the sentiment of problems and voted out many incumbents instead choosing for the opposition, sending a strong message to the government for a need for change.

Selangor, my home state, and Kuala Lumpur where I work, will be ruled by opposition.

A PAS MB (Chief Minister) will rule Kelantan and Kedah, whilst Keadilan MB will rule Selangor and DAP MB will rule Penang.

We will have a bunch of lesser experienced, young, enthusiastic, parlimentarians in the opposition party, whose consensus needs to be agreed to change the constitution.

We will have three strong opposition parties in the parliament.

Meanwhile, the Barisan Nasional alliance will be required to do serious soul searching on the brand of race based politics and examine the need for stronger leadership across the various component parties.

What does the future brings after the tsunami has cleared and everybody realises they need to get back to their regular life?

The optimist in me sees that the Barisan Nasional team needs to examine itself closely, because they need to do a thorough post-mortem, understand the real reasons for the dissent, give up self denial, cut off the cancerous bits, bring in fresh blood, transparency and socio-economic progress for all, and reinvent themselves - because they can only get better in the next 2013 elections. Be man enough to accept defeat and rebuild for the future. Whilst the opposition will be stronger after given a chance, they could also be weaker if they are not effective.

The people have spoken, have you heard them?

Now... get to work please, all you Yang Berhormats...

Election Fever

Pic - SS2 Ceramah on 7 Mar - it was raining.

The winds of change are blowing. It is a question of change with new or change with old, but I am convinced that this Election Day for Malaysia, on March 3rd 2008 will be carried through with a gust of the winds of change.

I am truly convinced the national coalition, Barisan Nasional will still win the elections and retain a 2/3 majority, hence achieving a mandate for the next 4 years. However, the elections fever has really caught on with the nation, and with strong challengers, new, young blood, unsolved mysteries, allegations of corrupt practices, the governments coalition front should brace itself for a tough fight, and surprise wins and loses will be in store for the rakyat and the government.

I am not advocating directly the opposition's vote, but this is my first elections which I have truly felt the need to exercise my vote, and I whilst I have not made up my mind, I am determined to exercise it responsibly.

This elections, for the very first time, I have attended two lively ceramahs thus far. Although I did not sit through (or rather stand through) the entire ceramah, it was very interesting listening to the speakers, and last Saturday, the first time I attended the ceramah, I went with my parents!!! And yet, old and young turned up, and I saw a friend also bringing his parents. And this is when I know the winds of change is blowing. Very much like Obama vs Clinton, see where Obama is - he is a fiercely strong and motivating speaker. And this is where I see the opposition has changed since the last elections. No longer a paltry 50-60 people last time I saw the ceramah in 2004 elections outside a restaurant we frequented, now the opposition draws a 2000-5000 crowd nightly and with a concerted effort, driven by information.

If you are a strong patriotic citizen, I urge you to listen to and be informed, to seek knowledge and make a responsible choice.

Mobile Phone Photographer

I admit it. I have downgraded to become a mobile phone photographer.

Against the chilled "cool toy" of the iPhone, I bought the Korean LG's beauty product - the Viewty, on eve of the eve of chinese new year. It was my CNY present to myself. It had been almost a year since I bought my last phone - the Sony Ericsson K800. The K800 used to be the cool toy - 3MP camera, and an extremely good buy - it had never broken down in my entire use of it.

Then I started noticing that everyone had the K800 - from my manager to my staff to my contractor. At one point in time, when I sat down in a working table and put my handphone on the table, I could not even differentiate which was mine.

Why the Viewty? Firstly the name is a lousy "chinaman" name - viewty, beauty ... heheh, very corny. The camera has its share of difficult usage - the sms is not really easy, and a keypad-less phone gets using to. However, after a weekend, it got better and i got used to the phone with the mascara (it had a mascara like stylus attached in a little dangling stick)

But I guess when I got used to it, I kind of liked playing with the 5MP camera. Imagine, about 8 years ago, I bought my first digital camera it was 1MP, Kodak. I have since upgraded to a 3MP camera three years later, and then another three years later a Nikon D70s DSLR 6MP and a Sony Cybershot T10 7MP for my family members.

Imagine, this phone now has a 5MP camera... how times has changed. It can even do ISO setting, exposure adjustment, focus, and an online edit and upload to YouTube. Wow....

Times have changed.

I am now a mobile phone photog.

Gongxi Fa Cai Ad Insights

A belated Gongxi Gongxi Fa Cai to all who celebrates Chinese New Year!

Bu Bu Gao Xing
Nian Nian Jun Bu

Not sure if my pinyin is still working after all these lack of learning - in actual fact, I never did learnt Hanyu Pinyin, the romanised version of mandarin translation. The phrase above means

May you achieve greater success with every step,
May you achieve greater progress with every year...!

The Chinese have fantastic ways and means of having these four letter (or rather four characters!!!) phrases which sounds very good and auspicious. Every year, during Chinese New Year, I would watch Astro Wah Lai Toi, and listen to all those HK or Malaysian TV stars wishing everyone a happy chinese new year.

This year, I saw a few cool ads, all expressing the New Year's best wishes in the most elegant form. The most notable one is of course the great sense of humanity and togetherness in the Petronas ad where a chinese boy orphan was asked to draw the reunion dinner affair and he was naively clueless to what to draw. As it turns out later, he is taken home my an indian lady to a orphanage, and with a message to the audience to cherish the family and spend time with the family back home for reunion dinner. Well said.

The TM ad was also muhibbah in its own kind. TM chose this year to emulate Tenaga (who did it last year and revived it again this year the same theme) - to get their senior execs to come on TV to wish happy new year in their own way. And so the group of company CEOs for TM, VADS, Fibrerail, Celcom, all came together to do their own gongxi, and also an added bonus to them was that they were all nicely clad in traditional Chinese clothings, and a clever mix of male, female, and all races too. A big thumbs up for TM, and Dato Shazali's CEO of Celcom trying of the chinese pronounciation of the four character phrases on national TV!!

Maxis did not do a TV ad this year (cutting costs?) but had a print ad with a traditional chinese meaning as well, with a single character Man, which means abundance. I suppose it has deep rooted meanings of providing for all, also it was indirectly romanised as "man" and also one with a cultural connotation of having always extra during the festive season. Maybe it should've gone about to tie in with a charity message. I would say that though stylish, the rest of the words was really too tough for me to read in the ad- the chinese was too difficult to the half educated reader of my calibre, so I suppose I missed some of the secondary messages from the phrases it was accompanied with.

The one single ad which I loved the most, and is most simple was the Pepsi ad. It starts with a silly man and large words depicting things to do this chinese new year 1. Clean House 2. Wash Hair and 3. Buy Pepsi...! and the last scene had the silly man with shampoo'ed hair down the aisle lining up for pepsi, and dusting the cashier as he was going off!! You really have to watch this to have a real laugh. The best joke was that, after that, everytime I went to the shopping center before CNY, I remembered to buy Pepsi!

The other favourite of mine was the Astro ad. It had a young man calling his dad asking him what he wants, and the dad saying, nothing, and then the viewer sees the dad in a small town, bored, riding his bike, drinking coffee alone, staring at old newspapers, and finally the son asked if the dad wants an astro, and then pause, flashes the empty house before, pans over to the astro promo and ends with a flashy and bright loud house with the astro tv on! Again, it is better seen than read. This ad was quite spot on!

Well, it just goes about to show the creative industry is still very much alive in Malaysia!

Great Eastern 30km/20km Race

I waited for this - this was a picture of my first race of the year, the Great Eastern Pacesetters 30/20km race. I ran in the 20km category, once again, slightly unfit, but definitely better after we had a few good practice runs with the slew of holidays, the practice run on the Double Hills were very encouraging for morale.

I definitely need more practice for my next race, the next big one will be KLIM 2008.

If you were to ask me, I look shagged, and definitely need to lose some pounds. Imagine my knees carrying all that weight :-)

Treasure Hunts - the addictive brain game

When when is the next treasure hunt? Just like the addiction to running, my addiction to treasure hunt had peaked at the end of the year, and then, eh? When is the next treasure hunt?

The treasure hunt bug bit us in end 2006/ towards the whole of 2007. The real sting which got our adrenaline pumped was definitely the highlight of the entire thing, to win the company treasure hunt. Albeit this was a bit of uncontested, I had a good time giving the prize to myself (almost). The feeling on the stage was interesting as I was going from 5th, 4th, 3rd, and finally 2nd, and we did not hear our name!!! Of course, dozens of people wonder why I take part in treasure hunts in the first place, and also with a really interesting bunch of people, my colleagues and to some cases, even my client members!

Firstly I have to say, I have the greatest respect for my colleagues and my client.

I am also mentally challenged by treasure hunts, no matter how tired the week has been or the challenges of the day, to look forward to a different kind of challenge on the weekend was very fascinating.

What was really interesting was also that there were ordinary folks and also well established folks who took to the same interest to the streets every week. It is also humbling to know what you do not know.

I am one who is optimistic. In every hunt, I know I could do better. I am not yet a veteran, but I am confident this year, my team can make the top 5.

As part of my analysis of the hunts I've participated in I thought about listing out what worked and what did not. That would be privately shared with my fellow hunters, but below really is just a couple of comments, and really it is just these hunts below I've participated in (maybe about 10 years ago, I did a couple of hunts, but I've laid of hunting for that long until end 2006)...

2006
Awam Hunt (Womens only) - I drove in this hunt, with 3 other gals. I was blissfully happy in the aircond car when they ran around. I also found myself to think better in the cool aircond car and spotted well from the car. We won something, maybe 8 position, can't remember.

Tiger Hunt Berjaya Times Square - Nasty walking and running around Berjaya times square hunt. Did not win anything, but discovered a new treasure hunt mate (the cap harimau washing detergent man).

Malaysian Mensa Hunt - We challenged ourselves here. TKM our driver's car window broke down in the beginning of the hunt making it a very hot hunt. We also did lousy on time. I think we were about 25 out of 35 consoled ourselves that the audience was too chim ... heheh...

2007
Company Treasure Hunt (Internal) (PD) - 1st 1st 1st, it was very fun, because established the team very last minute, just for fun. Young newcomer hunter hit my non-driving car at the parking lot!!!

Kiwanis Hunt (Melaka) - Biggest lesson of the year, was DQ'ed due to time. Felt disappointed, but met grandmaster CFS.

Multiple Sclerosis Hunt - Eh, what is multiple sclerosis? Did badly 15 of 22 but happy that we were on time after kiwanis...

Lexis Nexis KL Bar - Tough against lawyers.... I think I drove and we were at a 3 person car. Mistake to think 3 can think for 4. And I realise that I may perhaps contribute more on the thinking than driving.

Atmah Hunt (PD) - Eh, we did a right thing, we told ourselves we were novice, and got a novice 1st!!! But I never saw the prize... my fellow hunters ATE my share... :-)

Sun Motor Treasure Hunt - Wow, I love this hunt. The prizes were up to the 100s and the cars 250. Crazy... We got 45th position, and a lousy rice cooker. Just because of treasures ...

Franchise Walk Hunt - Can't believe we signed up for this. We got a newbie, CY, and walked and picture spotted ourselves to 10th position. I guess we still could have been better in the first half when we walked the wrong direction!

Old Georgians Association (OGA) Hunt (Seremban) - Kiasu-ness drove us to explore the neighbouring state, drove ourselves to a non-prize winning position, but mostly quite bad got lost and missed the treasure again. Had a ball of a funny time though...

Amazing I could remember all this... bring on the next hunt please...

Technology and Kids

Kids learn about technology so fast nowadays. My 6 month old niece who was featured in the last post, was absolutely fascinated by the simple camera phone. The technology consulting gadget savvy Aunty ie. me, took to simple tricks like trying to con a 6 month old baby with pictures of her sister, her father, her mother and even herself.

What was most fascinating was that the baby clutched onto the phone and loved her ownself and was absolutely trying to fathom how could another baby emerge on a device or how there are two versions of her mother or father.

So, I put the camera in the baby's hands, opened the lens, let her have a look at the phone picture of me, seeing she was able to be a bit curious, helped her pressed the button with her tiny fingers, and voila, you have a picture of aunty...

Pic 1 - can you see the halo around me :-) angel aunty...

Pic 2 - young camera-kids, soon they will be teaching me how to set iso and aperture... :-)

Both pics taken from my 1 year old K800i

haha...

Kids nowadays really knows how to use the digicam better than me...

Innocence

The look of innocence, of my 6 month old niece whom I met for the first time last week.

Life, many many years ago, as a baby was just so simple and peaceful, sleep, eat, cry, seeing things, learning things, daddy, mummy ...

I wish I could move time backwards not because of regrets, but because of just envy for the bliss of innocence...

Nostalgia - my San Francisco days...

Postscript - I could not resist - both photos here added later, intentionally small as it is intended only for those who know them. They are dated 1997, and used my K800 phone to photo a photo. I am in the second photo below.
Pic 1- Hari Raya and Chinese New Year in SF
Pic 2- Looking across at Alcatraz
-----

There are people who look back at photos and pictures of the past and feel, wow, this was what I was then, there are people who look back and wonder, wow, what has happened to these friends, and then there are those like me, I feel nostalgic.

If there was one project or assignment which has really been in my memory for my career, it would be the time we had spent in San Francisco, as a first leg of a project using a global asset for a local client. We were there for 6 months and our motley crew was a handful of american, canadians, and a handful of us malaysians, and a Frenchman, and a HK guy. That was 1997, 10 yeara ago. 10 years has passed very quickly.

I had a few encounters with this nostalgic 10 years encounter recently.

I met LH, my ex-supervisor who is back in the same company, she had left just about 9 years ago, just after the assignment where I was in a short sojourn in San Francisco. She looked older, though what did I expect, it has been almost 10 years. The old LH emerged, I could see she was still a very focussed, go-getter, though I did not know her too well then. And suddenly, here I was, at the same level of the organisation with her. And through 10 years, I've kept the same path with this company, and she has taken another, which brought her to Australia now currently back in employment with us. I was not sure to treat her as a supervisor which was the relationship we left off as, or as a friend, whom it never really had been or as a colleague, an equal. LH, I respected you a lot and will always respect you, you gave me the foundations of being a survivor in this organisation, many years back. And we had a blast in one of my most memorable assignments.

JR, whom I've been in contact with and had been for more than 10 years, shared also the same experiences we had in San Francisco, 10 years ago. Dear JR just got married to a lovely bubbly lass, and looks likely to be coming back to working closely with us again in the near future. JR, whom I've had the pleasure of knowing since he was part of the firm more than 10 years back, whom I've had the pleasure of many ski trips with then when we were all bored in San Francisco. Years has passed, and you have never changed, you have the passion to enjoy the best in life. Congratulations and all the best.

SL, after 10 years, and a few meet ups in between, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Beijing, you are back in lovely KL for our friend's wedding. Can you imagine, meeting up in 4 different countries, and if you throw in KL and SF, we'd have had met in 5 different locations, which is truly, a global connection. I admire your courage to do things differently and wish you all the best in your new job. You have indeed the individualistic and unique style which is admirable and also noteworthy. I am sure you will find what you want in everything that you do.

I can't help to be nostalgic. On my way out of the house, I actually accidentally stumbled upon a stack of old postcards, cards, photos from those old days in San Francisco. More than anything, I was there with you guys, and the others not on this list, SL, SR, JF,... 10 years and yet we remember those good old days... (When I have time, I'd post the photos here)




You know what they say, you are old when you ramble of things which has happened 10 years ago...

The Shoes are Back on!

It has thus far, been a reasonably healthy new year.

I've taken the "initiative" to laze off a bit on the second day back after new year's day, and went to the gym, at Fitness First menara maxis, for the first time since I signed up. The truth was, I've always imagined myself to be doing the menara maxis gym because it was nearby the KLCC Twin Towers where I occasionally am there almost 50% of the time. Moreover, I've actually met quite a few people who go to the gym and it is kind of like a home gym, I've double signed up California Fitness and Fitness First because I got a free year from Cal Fitness, but MidValley is a dreadful deadlock everytime anytime of the day.

So, just the second day after new year, I stopped by the gym at Menara Maxis, for a short workout, and a short run. These days, I'm tired even after 4km, which in the speed I run on treadmills is about 30mins. However, it is kind of interesting that as I pick up back the gym course, I could actually run faster on the treadmill without getting too tired.

The gym was also the place where I have decided to embark upon more strength training. I am hoping these will help me get back in shape and also fitness for the 20km GE race I signed up for. Was almost tempted for 30km, but in no way was I in shape..!!!

On Saturday, I did another round in the gym, thus on Sunday, my choice of Bukit Aman vs Bukit Tabur (Klang Gates ridge, a hike organised by some colleagues) was good - my Bukit Aman conquer of Double Hill never felt so good despite at least about 5km I did it on my own. However, there were many runners, so there was no fear for safety. I also counted many houses where there were security guards, so it felt safer and I would speed up when I was near them.

This Thursday, and coming Sunday, I'm looking for increasing the distance to 15km and 20km, so that I could have a good race on the 20th Jan.

Happy New Year 2008!

May the new year 2008 bring all of you health wealth and happiness.

I was at an office nearby 1-Utama, where I captured this, with many spoilt ones as well, as you would know, never take first times for fireworks - ie. it was my first time using my tripod (it was flimsy), and it was my first time taking fireworks!

Merry Christmas

On a more festive side, here's wishing all of you merry christmas... hohoho... guess what I will be doing on christmas day...

Memang lama saya tidak main lah....

My Beautiful Mind

Does it scare you sometimes when you see what the unconcious mind can do?

I used to have a mind which never stopped processing (hence the title of this blog), but now with age catching up, I am also finding other means to manage my "beautiful" mind. I doodle a lot when I am on the phone, or write short notes sometimes even I myself cannot understand. On Friday, after a 15 min conversation with a vendor which I was in a fairly good mood despite some disputes, I saw I had doodled on excel. Well, indeed I am no genius, but the symmetry of my doodling sometimes is pretty weird and scary.

Footnote:

A Beautiful Mind, is the story of John Nash, Nobel Prize winner, a person with schizophrenia. The movie won best director and best picture, best director, best supporting actress.

The Freedom of Speech

No, this blog is not about politics or anything mildly related to freedom and rights. After a prolonged absence from blogging, the last thing I would want to try is to be political (especially when we are all monitored now ... :-) ).

I had been sick for almost 3 weeks +. During this period, the week before last, was my worst, I lost my voice for 5 days and could not speak at all. I cancelled one big client meeting after queuing for a slot to meet for one month. I decided, I am sure the client can wait -> this was the first time I thought about it this way - I guess the 3 weeks of cough mixture has retarded me slightly.

The weird thing about not being able to speak was that, initially, I kept trying and trying, and eventually I decided, the docter really means it when he said my larynx was inflamed. And then, the other problem was the phone. It would ring and I would stare at the number and not being able to pick up the phone, when I was perfectly ok otherwise, was a torture. Then I would SMS back the caller saying my reason for not picking up. Eventually, weekend came and I still could not talk. Guess what I did - I switched off the phone.

I guess, I need to learn, when not to talk. And that silence is sometimes both a punishment and also a learning experience. When I did not talk, I found it more peaceful, as there was no expectations for me to do so, meant that nothing was also asked from me!

The freedom of speech, means, sometimes, not speaking. I learnt it the hard way.

And, yes, I know, I speak like a workhaholic. Bring back the old MC.